Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

There are a number of empirical studies which look at the relationship between economic conditions and voting behavior in industrialized democracies. Free elections, however, are a new phenomenon in Eastern Europe. This study observes the relationship between economic conditions and voting behavior for the Bulgarian Parliamentary elections of 1994. The empirical model uses cross-sectional data from 31 constituency districts in Bulgaria to examine whether votes for parliamentary seats were influenced by ideological factors or economic factors such as inflation and unemployment. The results indicate that economic conditions are important determinants of voting behavior in Bulgaria. In addition, ideology was a major influence on votes in the rural areas. Thus, both the pain of the transition process initiated in 1991 by the Democratic government, and the ideology of the rural population explain the electoral victory of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (formerly the Communist Party) in 1994.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Banks

Arthur S.

Alan

J. Day

and Thomas

C. Muller

, (1997) Political Handbook of the World 1997, Binghamton, NY: CSA Publications.

Bloom

Howard

and Douglas

H. Price

(1975), “Voter response to short-run economic conditions: the asymmetric effect of prosperity and recession.” The American Political Science Review, 69(4), pp. 1240–1254.

Creed

Gerald W.

(1995), “The politics of agriculture: identity and socialist sentiment in Bulgaria,” Studies in Comparative International Development, 30(4), pp. 63–78.

Downs

Anthony

(1957), An Economic Theory of Democracy, New York, NY: Harper and Row.

Fair

Ray C.

(1978), “The effect of economic events on votes for president,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 60(2), pp. 159–173.

Frey

Bruno

and Schneider

Friederich

(1978a), “An empirical study of politico-economic interaction in the United States,” The Review of Economics and Statistics, 60(2), pp. 174–183.

Frey

Bruno

and Schneider

Friederich

(1978b), “A politico-economic model of the United Kingdom,” Economic Journal, 88(350), pp. 243–253.

Groth

Lavelle

Wade (1991), Working Paper, University of California—Davis, Political Science Department.

Ishiyama

John

(1997), “Transition electoral systems in post-communist Eastern Europe,” Political Science Quarterly, 112(1), pp. 95–113.

10.

Lewis-Beck

Michael S.

(1983), “Economics and the French voter: a microanalysis,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 47(3), pp. 347–360.

11.

Markus

Gregory B.

(1992), “The impact of personal and national economic conditions on presidential voting, 1956–1988,” American Journal of Political Science, 36(3), pp. 829–834.

12.

Panzer

John

and Richardo

R. Paredes

(1991), “The role of economic issues in elections: the case of the 1988 Chilean presidential referendum,” Public Choice, 71(1–2), pp. 51–59.

13.

Partos

Gabriel

(1995), “Who's afraid of post-communism?,” The World Today, 51(2), pp. 28–32.

14.

Sacks

Jeffrey D.

(1992), “The economic transformation of Eastern Europe: the case of Poland.” Economics of Planning, 25(1), pp. 5–19.

15.

Stigler

George J.

(1973), “General economic conditions and national elections,” American Economic Review, 63(2), pp. 160–167.

16.

Szajkowski

Bogdan

(1994), Political Parties of Eastern Europe, Russia and the Successor States, Essex, UK: Longman Information & Reference.

17.

Tarifa

Fatos

and Weinstein

Jay

(1995), “Overcoming the past: de-communization and reconstruction of post-communist societies,” Studies in Comparative international Development, 30(4), pp. 63–78.

18.

Troxel

Luan

(1993), “Socialist persistence in the Bulgarian elections on 1990–1991,” East European Quarterly, 26(4), pp. 407–430.

19.

Ursprung

Heinrich W.

(1984), “Macroeconomic performance and government popularity in New Zealand,” Comparative Political Studies, 16(4), pp. 457–477.

An Empirical Model of Voting Behavior in the Bulgarian Parliamentary Elections of 1994

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References